Here we are on a hike during a family camping trip at Yosemite National Park.

If you're like a lot of families this year, you want to find some budget-minded ways that you can still enjoy a family vacation together, but without spending a lot of money. One of the best ways you can do that is to take the family camping. But if you haven't done much camping yourself—or if you haven't yet tried it with your baby or toddler, you might be unsure of where to begin. Here are some tips to help make happy campers of your whole family.

1. Start with a good campground that's close to home with drive-in campsites.

Look for campgrounds you can reach in under an hour from wherever you call home (check your state parks website or visit www.reserveamerica.com for ideas). This makes it easy to start with just an overnight trip, since you can leave Saturday morning after breakfast and still be home Sunday for dinner.

2. When picking your campsite, avoid these locations if you can:

Next to water - The view might be lovely, or the sound of a trickling stream, but with small kids it could be a safety hazard and you may end up constantly chasing your toddler or young kids out of the creek. It may also put you in the thick of mosquitoes come dusk.

Next to the restroom - In the case of pit toilets, the reason may be obvious. But the constant traffic to the john, flushing noises, conversations, and lights can be very disruptive to young sleepers who are already excited about sleeping in the tent.

3. When you'll be sharing a tent with a baby or small kids, test-drive the sleeping arrangements at home first.

Whether you set up the tent in the backyard, or just roll out the sleeping bags in the living room, it's helpful to try a practice run of sleeping "in camp" at home. Let your kids practice sleeping in their sleeping bags-toddlers often wiggle their way out in the night, and if yours does, you'll know you need to dress him in extra warm clothing. Just the prospect of sleeping in a tent can be exciting enough for kids new to camping, and if they don't normally share a room with Mom and Dad at home, so you might want to work through that initial excitement at home rather than in the campground. Also, campers with babies will especially want to test out the baby's sleeping arrangements and attire to make sure they are comfortably warm without being overbundled.

4. Keep the food and cooking simple on your first camping trips.

You don't need to cook up 3-course meals for your family while camping, and you don't even need a camp stove to get started. For a short camping trip, bring bagels or cereal, sandwich fixings, cold veggies, fruit, and a few of your favorite snacks. And by all means, don't forget to bring the marshmallows!

Shelly Rivoli is the author of the award-winning guide Travels with Baby: The Ultimate Guide for Planning Trips with Babies, Toddlers, and Preschool-Age Children.

www.travelswithbaby.com       Twitter: @travelswithbaby